Josh Burkman Confirms UFC 77 Fight With Forrest Petz

Josh Burkman (8-4 MMA, 4-2 UFC) has confirmed what MMAjunkie.com first reported last month: he’ll take on Ohio fighter Forrest Petz (13-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) in October at UFC 77.

UFC 77 takes place Oct. 20 in downtown Cincinnati and features a main event of current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin. The event is expected to air on pay-per-view.

Burkman, a cast member on “The Ultimate Fighter 2″ who’s gone on to a successful career in the UFC’s welterweight division, today confirmed the fight with a MySpace bulletin.

Burkman’s become one of the most well-rounded 170-pound fighters in the UFC and was on a path toward title contention before a disappointing decision loss to Karo Parisyan at UFC 71.

Petz lives and trains in Cleveland, Ohio, which is located about three-and-a-half hours north of Cincinnatiâ??s U.S. Bank Arena, a 19,000-capacity facility that will host UFC 77.

Petz, who first began fighting in 2003, made his octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 6 and defeated Sam Morgan via unanimous decision. It was a dominating performance that earned Petz winning scorecards of 30-27, 30-26 and an unheard-of 30-23.

In the next UFC Fight Night event, he lost to Marcus Davis with a first-round submission via guillotine choke. He then dropped a unanimous decision to Kuniyoshi Hironaka at UFC Fight Night 9 before bouncing back with his own unanimous-decision victory over Luigi Fioravanti at UFC Fight Night 10.